


I carry your love in my heart; it helps to keep me warm

by morganismoss



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: 5+1 Things, Aziraphale and Crowley Through The Ages (Good Omens), Biblical Scripture References (Abrahamic Religions), Canon - Good Omens (Book & TV Combination), Fluff and Humor, Genderfluid Crowley (Good Omens), It's about the tenderness, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Queerplatonic Relationships, Soft Aziraphale (Good Omens), Soft Crowley (Good Omens), it's about the tenderness your honor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:00:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23503507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morganismoss/pseuds/morganismoss
Summary: The Times that Aziraphale (Principality; Guardian of the Eastern Gate) kept the wily demon Crowley (Serpent; the demon who didn't Fall so much as Saunter Vaguely Downward) warm throughout their long history on earth.A story told in five parts (not counting the epilogue).
Relationships: Aziraphale & Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 24





	1. the Wilderness of Zin, or the Wilderness of Kadesh, circa 1446-1200 BCE

**Author's Note:**

> I tried posting this once before, but I didn't like the prose that much, so I took it down to heavily revise it. Let's try this again, shall we?

"Hello, Aziraphale," Crawly said, slinking up behind the angel. All of his movements could be considered slinking at this stage in history. Though he had been using this corporation for hundreds of years, he still wasn't in full mastery of all the limbs. Thus, he slunk. "What are you doing out here?"

"Oh, hello, Crawly," said Aziraphale, "I'm just talking to God, at the moment."

"Telling Her anything exciting?"

"Er, not exactly," he admitted, "I'm asking Her to… Actually, it's none of your business. I shouldn't even be talking with you, you- you cunning serpent. You are the Enemy, after all."

"Right," Crawly raised an eyebrow incredulously. 

"I see right through your plot, demon," Aziraphale said sternly, "You're trying to distract me from praying, which will surely lead to…erm, nothing good, that's for sure."

"Yup, you got me," Crawly shrugged, "The Great Distractor, I am. And _you're_ the steadfast angel who never tried from his prayer duties."

"That's precisely it, dear boy. Now, if you'd please distract a little quieter, that would be greatly appreciated."

"Course, course, don't let me bother you any further." he climbed up onto the rock behind the angel, then laid on his back to look up at the sky. 

Aziraphale bowed his head again, closing his eyes. He inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled. It was a new human invention, _meditation_ they called it, and it was designed to help someone ground themselves in the present and focus their thoughts inward. He desperately needed to focus on his innermost self: his celestial essence. He had been trying to contact Heaven for years, now, to ask when this whole desert business would be over, but the best answer he had been given was the equivalent of an automated answering system† and waiting on hold for what seemed like a small eternity before hanging up and trying again the next night.

[† "To request more mana, please press one. To request that the people be lead by a pillar of clouds and/or fire, please press two. To speak to a live operator…"]

"How much longer do you think they'll be lost, exactly?" Crawly asked after a few minutes, "I mean, it's been years, you'd think they'd find whatever it is they're looking for. I'm running out of ways to keep myself entertained."

Aziraphale sighed wearily. "Oh, it can't be much longer. As far as I know, it's a punishment, of sorts."

"Wait, you don't actually know why they're lost?" he asked. 

"I-I do," he stammered, "I just… I can't tell you, obviously."

"Right, right, demon," he sat up and rested his chin in his hand, "What did they do this time?"

"Er, complain, mostly. Said they wanted to go back to Egypt," he shook his head, "Wait, isn't that why _you're_ here? To stir up discontentment?"

"No, they do that much on their own," he bit his tongue, "I mean, yep, I'm the one doing… that."

Aziraphale turned around to give the demon a reproachful glare. And he had every intention of carrying that out; really, he did. But then he noticed a faint shiver run over the other's body. "Crawly, may I ask why you're out here in the middle of the night so far away from the camp if you're trying to lead the people to sin? There aren't many humans to tempt out here."

"It... works better if I do it from a distance," Crawly said, and there was that shiver again "The tempting, that is. Get too close, then they start asking too many questions. 'Oi, why're your eyes all yellow? Why haven't you aged any in the last decade? Why's your skin so pale?' And then the whole jig is up."

Aziraphale studied the other for a minute. "I suppose."

"Why're _you_ out here praying by yourself? _If you don't mind me asking_ ," he asked sarcastically.

"Oh, erm, the same reason as you, I suppose," he tore his gaze away and looked down at the hands clasped in his hand, "And... it's quieter out here. Well, it's _usually_ quieter."

"Okay, I can take a hint," Crawly laid back down, this time on his stomach, long limbs dangling lazily over the rock, "Please, continue. I'll be quiet as a mouse, I swear it."

"Thank you," Aziraphale said curtly and closed his eyes once more. He was still on hold, so to speak, which was both a disappointment and an annoyance.† So he closed the line to Heaven and told himself he'd try again later. He tried to think about something else to distract himself from the sinking feeling that nobody Above wanted to talk to him.

[† He had heard the celestial "hold music" so many times that he feared it was permanently etched into his very essence, somehow.]

The issue, however, was that the only other thing to think about was the demon's discomfort. Angels were acutely attuned to the emotional state of others. This included suffering, of course, and over the general dissatisfaction of the camp, which was always present in the peripheral of his conscience, Crawly's irritation was close and festering. Aziraphale opened his eyes and watched the demon. He fidgeted like he couldn't quite relax, and the slight shiver had turned into a full tremor. "You can sit on the ground if you'd like, there's plenty of room and I'm sure it's less… pointy."

"Ngk, it'ssss warm," Crawly hissed.

"The… rock is warm?"

Crawly nodded.

"Are you- you aren't cold, are you?"

Crawly opened his eyes. "No."

"Crawly, you're shaking."

"I am not."

"I don't understand, it's a balmy night!"

"Maybe if you're warm-blooded," Crawly muttered.

"Oh, for heaven's sake," Aziraphale rolled his eyes, and on the other side of the rock, a small fire appeared. Then he took off his shawl and laid it over the demon's shoulders. "There. Now, do be a dear and try not to set the camp ablaze, hm? Otherwise, I will be obligated to thwart you."

Crawly scrambled to sit up, subconsciously pulling the shawl around his slender frame. It smelled… Divine. And warm. It felt amazing to his chilled skin. He turned to look at the miraculous fire, crackling and inviting. He turned again, and the angel was walking away. "Oi, wait! What's all this about? I thought I was the enemy? Or whatever bollocks you said earlier."

"Well, I can't very well let you freeze to death," Aziraphale paused his exit, wringing his hands together, "I'm not even sure if you _can_ die from exposure, technically speaking. You'd just be cranky, most likely. Which would result in you taking out your foul mood on the Israelites, which would cause them to sin even more, and then who knows how long we'd all be stuck out here. I'm just preemptively stopping your evil schemes."

Crawly stared at him. "Right, right, 'course. So I won't be thanking you for this, then, and don't expect it back, either! It's very foolish for an angel to go lending his clothes to a demon. Might come back to bite you." 

"It could. I guess we'll just have to see how it plays out some other time. Goodnight, Crawly."

As the angel turned to walk away again, somewhere further from people and demons alike, the serpent slid down the rock to sit closer to the fire. And if, after a long moment of watching the flames dance, he breathed in more of the shawl's scent and smiled to himself, well, only the stars were witness to that.


	2. Bethlehem, circa 0 CE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: there is a brief mention of afterbirth and a yeast infection in case that squicks anyone out.

Had the census itself been Crawly's † idea? Definitely not. Had the whole bit about returning to one's hometown to be counted been their suggestion? Yes. Did they now regret their participation in the whole ordeal?  _ Most definitely _ . 

[ † The demon quite wanted to change their name, but they weren't quite sure what they would like to change it to, exactly. Thus, they were still Crawly.]

"Stupid bloody census," they muttered on the doorstep of the last inn they had tried to buy a bed in. It was mathematically improbable that there had been  _ this _ many people born in this town. Sure, it was a fairly large village, but not large enough to have  _ every single inn _ Crawly had visited have no rooms available. The whole "City of David" tourism campaign must be working out for them brilliantly. 

They had options, of course. If Crawly was really, truly desperate enough for a room, they could throw their long curling hair over their shoulder, drop their voice into a low purr, and turn up the allure. Humans fell so easily for that type of simple temptation. However, they'd rather freeze in an alleyway or get chased by feral dogs than to lie down in a stranger's bed † .

[ †  And get to know them, Biblically speaking.]

They had every intention of finding a nice, unoccupied alley to bunker down in for the night, and was even preemptively loosening a sandal to use as a projectile if the dogs came around, but then they saw this  _ stable _ at the edge of town. There was a… glow about the place. A nice, comforting,  _ warm  _ glow. A Heavenly glow, by the looks of it. A Heavenly glow the demon should  _ not _ be familiar with. A Heavenly glow they recognized almost immediately. As a demon, they were obligated to investigate, just for the sake of duty.

Animals were always wary around him, and they smelled pretty awful at times, but hay and manure were better than the current offerings of dirt and mutts and shivering for hours on end. So they crept towards it, sticking to the shadows. When they got to the entrance, the smell of hay and animals and the by-products of two washed over them as expected. But there were other smells here, too, they realized as they experimentally flicked their tongue out. Ah, yes, there was the heavenly host he had noticed from thirty paces away. However, there was an unexpected assortment of very  _ human _ scents. A man, a woman, and… afterbirth?

They slithered inside without being detected and climbed into the rafters to get a better lay of the place. He saw the angel, perched atop a stack of hay, invisible to the pair of humans. His halo was shining radiantly above his head, his wings were tucked neatly against his back, and he was swinging his legs contentedly. † The woman was humming to herself as she bundled up something and the man was filling a feeding trough with fresh hay. There was a tiny coo and- yep, that was a baby. A minutes-old baby. So they hadn't been wrong about the afterbirth. 

[ †  The sight would turn the stomach of any self-respecting demon. The halo of an angel should have been blinding to a creature who spent most of their time lurking in dark corners, even at its dimmest. And he looked so… bloody happy up there, like he was watching something great unfold. It was sickeningly sweet.]

Crawly positioned themselves over where the angel was sitting and dropped down onto the cushion of hay with a nearly-silent  _ thump!  _ The angel made a surprised noise, clearly startled. He turned around to see what had almost dropped on his head and met eyes with the demon, whose hair was now full of dust and straw. "Crawly? What on Earth are you doing here?"

"Ah, you know, I was just in the area," Crawly explained. They were aiming for casual, but spitting a piece of hay out of their mouth undermined the whole effect. "What with the census and all. Whole bloody world's getting counted, so many people moving about... it's all quite chaotic. So my bosses thought I should be useful and do a bit of tempting here and there. What're you up to these days?"

"If you must know, my superiors have me on baby-watching duty," Aziraphale said, pointing to the infant, "Since Gabriel got to make the Announcement to Mary and Joseph, and since he's preoccupied with getting the shepherds here, that left me to make sure everything went smoothly."

"Seems like a lot of fuss for one baby," said Crawly. "And it's a hell of a place to have a baby shower, I think. Poor thing's gonna die of exposure 'fore any shepherds show up."

"Well, He is a  _ very _ special baby," Aziraphale said cryptically, "I would tell you about it, under normal circumstances, but it's all very hush-hush. The fact that you accidentally found yourself in here is bad enough."

"Right, right, of course" Crawly nodded, the corner of their mouth quirking up slightly in the lazy smirk they had perfected. They were used to this treatment by the angel, and odds were he would tell them whatever the big secret was eventually. "If he's so special though, you'd think they'd have the decency to rent the poor girl a proper room to give birth in."

"It's all according to the Great Plan. I'll have you know that his birth is quite miraculous. Unprecedented."

"Miraculous or not, she's gonna get a yeast infection at this rate," Crawly said solemnly.

Aziraphale's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Crawly! You shouldn't speak like that!"

"Why not? 'S just the truth," they shrugged. "It'll itch like anything, I feel sorry for her."

"All right, all right, you've forced my hand" the angel huffed. He fluttered his hand in the mother's general direction and rolled his eyes, "There, all better."

Electing not to acknowledge the favor the angel had done them, Crawly looked at the baby. "Has he got a name yet?"

"Oh yes, several," Aziraphale said, "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace-"

"Those are rubbish names," Crawly interrupted, "They sound more like titles than anything. And isn't it sanctimonious to call the little bugger 'Mighty God'? That's technically blasphemy, innit?"

"I… I didn't have any say in his name," Aziraphale said helplessly, "That's not my department. I was just told to be here tonight."

Crawly shivered and pulled their knees up against their chest. They watched the mother murmur sweet nonsense to her son as he fell asleep, holding one of his father's fingers in his tiny hand. "He's a cute little bugger, at least."

"Erm, yes yes, quite… cute," Aziraphale sighed lamely. He looked over and observed the demon try to suppress another shiver. "Why  _ are  _ you here, anyway?"

"I told you, I'm just passing through. Causing a bit of trouble," they hunched their shoulders.

"Yes, yes, but why are you  _ here? _ In  _ this _ stable? Because if this is some sort of scheme to harm the baby, I swear I'll- I-"

Aziraphale's wings spread out, face hardening. For the first time on Earth, he looked the part of a strong celestial warrior, once entrusted with a fiery sword and a garden to protect. Crawly shrunk back and slid down the haystack, eyes wide.

"Oh, oh dear," Aziraphale folded his wings back when he saw the fear in the demon's eyes. "I'm- I know you would never do that." Aziraphale placed his hands in his lap and looked down at them. "It's just a coincidence that you're here. An accident. Ineffable."

Shoulders tense, Crawly watches the way he wrung his hands in his lap. "S okay, I'd be nervous too, if my boss was coming back soon."

"Yes, quite," Aziraphale smiled weakly and looked back down at them. He offered his hand, and Crawly took it in theirs, using it to leverage themselves back up the haystack. "My goodness, Crawly, your hands are cold!"

"They might be, yeah," they settled beside the angel once again and reluctantly pulled his hand away from Az's warm one, "You don't notice it after a while."

"That's dreadful. Is the rest of you that cold as well?"

"Suppose so." they fidgeted, "Sss no big deal, angel."

"That can't be comfortable, poor thing. Did you bring more clothes with you?"

"Erm," Crawly's ears were approaching the same red as their unruly curls. They did, in fact, have other clothes: the same shawl that the fussy angel had given them hundreds of years before. However, they weren't about to admit that. Because then they would have to admit that they had slept with it wrapped around themselves more nights than they could count † . "Nope, just what I have with me I'm afraid. Sss okay though, it's much warmer in here than out there. Could do without the smell of dung, though."

[ † And they could count quite high. They had been the angel to number the stars, after all.]

"Yes, I agree," Aziraphale chuckled lightly. They sat in silence for a few moments, watching the happy new parents and the mild infant. Crawly shifted frequently, first leaning one way, then another. They nearly slipped down to the ground. They righted themselves just in time, but Aziraphale had instinctively brought his wing around the demon to catch them. They both tensed, realizing what had happened. Their eyes wander to meet each other's, before quickly snapping to look in any other direction. Neither one dared to move away.

Aziraphale considered folding his wings back up again and possibly shoving them back into the ethereal plane so they couldn't betray him again. It would be easy to do; he wouldn't even need to bother with snapping his fingers or any of that rubbish. However, he could feel Crawly shaking like a newborn calf under his outstretched wing, and it wasn't out of fear. He knew what fear looked like. There was some fear in Crawly, yes, but the reason they were shaking was  _ physical.  _

The poor thing was  _ frigid, _ trying valiantly to suppress each shiver from shaking their slight frame. How could the angel, in good conscience, let the demon out from under his wing now? 

Yes, it would be cruel to cast them out of the stable. They would certainly discorporate without warmer clothes. So the angel pulled his wings tighter around himself, drawing them closer to his side. It was a good thing the body he had been assigned tended to run on the warm side.

Crawly's whole body went rigid, not sure what to make of this development. Part of them told them to move out from under the wing and  _ run,  _ far away from this angel who went around offering kindnesses to demons. Well, not just any demon. They had never heard Aziraphale ever mention running into any other demons, much less having funny conversations with them or keeping them warm in a desert or a stable. No, it was  _ them  _ specifically that they seemed to be interested in. It was almost like he  _ cared  _ about them, which couldn't be right. 

The other part of them, the part they blamed on their nature as a snake † , wanted to stay curled up right here under the angel's wing. It was safe here, and comfortable, but most importantly:  _ warm _ .

[ †  It was unfair for them to blame it on their snakehood. In actuality, they wanted to stay there because of something much bigger inside of them, something they wouldn't dare admit they still had beating in their chest.]

"Just look at the state you're in," Aziraphale  _ tsk _ ed, drawing Crawly out of their thoughts. He brought one plump, nimble hand up and picked a piece of straw out of their hair, "That's what you get for dropping on my head." 

As he spoke, he continued to remove debris, and Crawly slowly relaxed. "I did not. I made a conscious effort to  _ not  _ do that, in fact."

"A warning would have been appreciated. You could have said 'look out below!' or 'hello Aziraphale, it's me again" or anything, really."

"I'll consider it next time," Crawly said dryly. There was a comfortable pause, and the angel continued the task of removing bits of hay from flowing red curls with a singular focus. Crawly watched the baby sleep as his parents welcomed a few men into the stable. What an odd crowd they made: an angel, a demon, a new mother and father, an infant, some shepherds, and the livestock. "I've been thinking about names a lot, myself."

"Oh?" Aziraphale looked at their face again. He wasn't quite sure what they were referring too, but felt it best to seem encouraging. "Have you?"

"Yeah. I just don't think Crawly really suits me, you know? The whole world's changing, figure I should change too."

Aziraphale looked away, and put both of his hands back in his lap. However, he kept his wing around the demon, "Humans have come so far already, haven't they? It'll be exciting to see what they do next."

Crawly nodded, "It's always something interesting."

Aziraphale smiled, broad and warm, and it made the rest of him glow that much brighter. "Well, Crawly, erm, when the time comes, I'm sure that whatever you do end up changing your name too will be interesting as well."


End file.
